Institute of Computer Science — Knowledge-Based Systems Research Group
	Highspeed KURT

Fig 1: High Speed KURT (fast moving autonomous mobile robot) is an autonomous mobile robot that drives with 4.0 m/s (14.4 km/h) in our corridors (reliably controlled!!). We can control these high speed robots with some special real-time algorithms and a tricky robot control architecture which combines the algorithms with the robot hardware. (Foto: www.dieterklein.de)

Specification

Our high speed KURT is a modified version of a standard KURT2 [1]. KURT is a German acronym for experimental robot platform for sewerage inspection. It is the prototype of a wireless autonomous mobile robot, with a size of 45 cm (length) x 33 cm (width) x 26 cm (hight) and a weight if 10.4 kg. It is equipped with a Panasonic tough-book (+4.2 kg, 800 MHz pentium 3) and a 3D laser range finder (based on a Sick LMS, +7.0 kg) that increases the height to 47 cm and the weight to totally 22.6 kg. For indoor environements the front and rear wheels have no tread pattern to enhance rotating. KURT2 operates for about 4 hours with one battery charge (28 NiMH cells, capacity: 4500 mAh). The core of the robot is a Pentium-III-600 MHz with 384 MB RAM and Real-Time Linux. An embedded 16-Bit CMOS microcontroller is used to control the motor and lower sensors (Phytec. Minimodul C167, inc. flash rom). It's current maximum velocity that we can control with our robot control architecture and the laser range finder (about 70 scans/sec, 181 values in 180 degrees) is 4.0 m/s (14.4 km/h) and is reached by two 90 Watt Maxon motors (transmission 1:14) .

• 90W motor
• power supply: 38V
• Main Sensor: 3D laser scanner based on a Sick LMS, 181 values in 181 degrees in 13 ms, 24V extra power supply
• Wheel encoders
• Maximal possible speed 5.4m/s
• Maximal controlled speed 4.0 m/s. (Controlled speed means that the robot avoids humans and other obstacles.)
• Weight: 3D laser: 7kg, Laptop: 4.2 kg, KURT2 body: 8.6 kg, cover: 2.8 kg (the cover includes batteries for the 3D scanner)
• Additional sensors: 2 cameras.

Videos

KURT2 drives in the corridors of campus Birlinghoven. The following short videos (encoded with divx), show the robot in action as well as the view from it's cameras.

• Kurt drives with 1.5 m/s (7.9MB). Video with robot view
• Kurt drives with 2.5 m/s (5.8MB). Video with robot view
• Kurt drives with 3.5 m/s (7.6MB). Video with robot view
• Kurt drives with 3.5 m/s (7.9MB). Video without robot view.
• Kurt drives with 3.5 m/s & stops for a dynamic obstacle (6.9MB).
• Kurt drives with 3.5 m/s - View of the robot and through a camera mounted on top of the laser range finder (48.5MB).
• Localization of Kurt in the corridor (13.0 MB). Video displaying the one critical situation (featureless environment while turning in a corner) for tracking.
• Localization of Kurt while skidding on smooth surface (18.6 MB).
• Localization & 3D map building outside (31.1 MB).

Paper

• Kai Lingemann, Andreas Nüchter, Joachim Hertzberg, and Hartmut Surmann. About the Control of High Speed Mobile Indoor Robots, in Proceedings of the Second European Conference on Mobile Robotics (ECMR '05), ISBN 88-89177-187, Ancona, Italy, September 2005, pages 218 - 223. [Get Paper]

Some publications.